A/N: Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed. It's great to know that some people are reading and enjoying. Someone asked about Aria's armour. I've a picture of it in my head but no picture to show anyone. I picture it as a sort of female version of Peter's in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but less ornate and shiny - more worn and apocalypse looking. None of that nonsense of female armour that covers the essentials and very little else.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Narnia and make nothing from writing about it - I wish!

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Lucy looked and saw that Aslan had just breathed on the feet of the stone giant … The change was already creeping up the Giant's legs. Now he was moving his feet. A moment later he lifted his club off his shoulder, rubbed his eyes and said,

"Bless me! I must have been asleep. Now! Where's that dratted little Witch that was running about on the ground. Somewhere just by my feet it was."

… everyone had shouted up to him to explain what had really happened, and when the Giant had put his hand to his ear and got them to repeat it all again so that at last, he understood.

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Edmund

Edmund could not tear his eyes away. He was not even aware that his hand was still on the cheek of the beautiful girl before him. But had he been aware, he would not have wished to remove it.

He had never seen anyone remotely like this young woman before. With her emerald eyes and auburn hair, she was a bright splash of colour in an otherwise colourless winter wood.

Moments passed as Edmund stared into the girl's eyes and she stared back at him. He felt her hand slid up his forearm to where his hand rested on her cheek, he could hardly breath …

A slight change in the depths of the girl's eyes was all the warning that he had before he found himself on his back in the snow with cold steel pressed to his neck.

The three dwarves who had crowded closer to see what had happened jumped back.

"Who are you?" she growled at him.

Edmund sucked in a breath to reply when a large hairy shape smashed into the pair of them, knocking the girl off him. It was Lupa. The girl recovered impressively fast, spinning as she landed and jumping to her feet, before he could react, she had darted off between the trees.

Edmund raced after her without thought, she seemed to be limping slightly and so it was not long before he caught up to her. Lupa had already reached the girl and she was tracking the wolf's movements as he circled her, keeping her knife low and pointed towards him. Distracted as she was, it was easy for Edmund to creep up behind her and grab the hand that was holding the knife. Grasping her second wrist Edmund forced the struggling girl back against a tree with her hands behind her back. Added pressure to her wrist forced her to drop the knife.

"Hold Still" he commanded. "We mean you no harm."

The girl's eyes told him all he needed to know. She believed none of it. Her beautiful eyes were full of anger and distrust and as he kept her arms pinned behind her there was something else … pain.

Even as she continued to struggle, the girl's eyes glazed over, and she fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Moving quickly to catch her as she fell, Edmund lowered the girl swiftly but gently to the ground.

"My King!" Lupa whispered urgently "you are covered in blood, are you hurt?"

Edmund looked at his blood covered hands.

"Wait … It's not my blood … it's hers!"

Aria

As for Aria, one moment she was turning to stone with the White Witch sneering down on her, the next she awoke to find a strange man kneeling beside her with his hands on her.

Her reaction, trained soldier as she was, was instantaneous. She had her knife to the man's throat in seconds. However, her actions were thwarted by a large grey wolf who leapt on her and knocked her off the man.

If Aria had been unsure as to whether or not this man was working for Jadis, this confirmed it. She did not know how many years had passed, but the woods were still bound in winter and once more she was surrounded by dwarves and had been attacked by a wolf.

Panic fuelled her strength. Aria rolled as she fell, struggled to her feet and made a desperate dash for the trees. It was not long before the wolf caught up with her however as she could not run fast on her injured ankles. Dropping to a crouch, Aria tracked the wolf's movements as he circled, keeping her knife on him.

But she had stupidly forgotten the man. And that was her downfall. Suddenly she felt her wrist grabbed from behind and before she knew it, she had been forced to drop the knife and was pinned to a tree with her knife behind her back. Her mother would be disgusted with her for such a failing in basic combat. It was inexcusable to be surprised by a combatant, especially one that you were already aware of.

As she struggled against the man, her eyes spitting fire, Aria could not help noticing the man had the deepest chocolate brown eyes that she had ever seen. With this lapse in focus, the adrenaline which had been fuelling Aria abated and she was abruptly aware of her injuries and the sharp pain as her wrists were held.

Embarrassingly, disturbingly she felt herself begin to faint.

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"By Aslan there's blood everywhere!"

As he examined the girl, Edmund could hardly work out where the blood was coming from, there was so much of it. And then he saw.

When he removed the girl's gloves, he saw that there were deep puncture wounds on her wrists. Applying pressure Edmund called urgently to the dwarf chief who was standing nearby.

"Do you have a healer in your camp?"

Wasting no time in talk, Thune nodded and called to the younger dwarves.

"Get your mother, tell her to bring her supplies … quickly now!"

And with that Dupple and Briggle sped off into the woods towards their camp.

Meanwhile Thune helped Edmund to apply pressure to the girl's wounds.

"My King" it was Lupa who had come closer to see the girl's injuries.

"I smell more blood from the ankles."

Removing the girl's boots, they saw that her ankles and feet too had deep puncture wounds, as if from bites. These were even messier than the wounds on her wrists as it appeared that the girl had wrenched her legs away from the teeth.

"My King" Lupa said urgently.

"I think you should know … those bite marks … they are from wolves!"

Edmund paled.

"Jadis" he grated, speaking the name he rarely articulated.

"She had her wolves pin this girl down while she turned her to stone."

Lupa nodded.

"Either she was a very great enemy to the Witch, who thwarted her enough to earn this treatment, or …"

Lupa paused as if considering. Edmund looked at his guard questioningly.

"Or …" Lupa continued. "She was in service to Jadis and did something to merit punishment!"

"Well, whichever it is, we shall have to question her." Edmund answered. "I for one am not going to judge her before we hear her story."

At that moment the dwarfish healer, a stout, elderly female arrived and shooed them away so that she could work on her patient. The marvellously efficient and practical dwarfess had the wounds sutured and bandaged in no time at all.

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Aria awoke to find herself comfortable and warm at the same time. Warm for the first time since she could remember.

She kept her eyes closed, sensing that someone was near her. She tried to decide, what her options were, what she should do, at the same time attempting to reach the knife that she kept at her belt.

"I know you are awake" a voice came from beside her, sounding faintly amused "and you won't find that knife!"

Aria's eyes snapped open and found herself looking a low-beamed wooden ceiling and … she was lying in a bed. Why had they put her in a bed? And … they had dressed her wounds. This was not the usual way that the Witch treated her prisoners.

The voice came again shifting her attention to the figure sitting in a low chair beside the bed.

"My name is Ed" the man said leaning forward with a slight smile. "And you are …"

"Aria."

Aria cursed herself as the name slipped out before she could stop herself. If this man told the witch that he had captured a woman named Aria …"

But the stranger showed no sign of alarm or even of having recognised her name. He smiled again.

"Oh, I like that smile" Aria thought to herself and then gave herself a shake, pulling herself together.

"How did you come to be turned to stone Aria?" Ed asked.

Aria considered. She did not know if this man, attractive as he was, was friend or foe. He had been kind to her so far, but she did not know what his intentions were. The less he knew about her the better.

She feigned a puzzled look.

"Stone?" she questioned. "I … I … don't know … I can't remember … I can't remember anything!"

"Well," answered Ed with another of those smiles. "I hear that some temporary amnesia is common after trauma. Once we get you to the castle, we will see what we can do about that."

Aria swallowed thickly.

"The castle?" she questioned.

"Yes" answered Ed, oblivious to Aria's rising terror. "The castle, once you are there, the Queen can use her potion, perhaps that will help you to remember."

"The … the Queen?" Arai croaked turning pale. "I … that is, my throat is dry. Would you mind getting me some water Ed?" she tried a smile despite feeling anything like smiling.

"Of course."

As soon as Ed left the room, Aria jumped out of the bed.

The Queen

The Castle

Wolves

Dwarves

Snow

She was right back where she had started. She had to get out of there before they figured out who she was and she ended up stone again, or worse!

Casting around, Aria could find no sign of her knife or her boots.

"I'll just have to make do without" she murmured to herself"

And with that she hopped out of the low window and raced away through the woods, much to the surprise of the dwarves who were working in the smithy across the camp.

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"Sorry I took so long, there was no water in the house, I had to go to the well …"
Edmund trailed off as he realised that the room was empty, and the window was open to the wintry air.

Letting out a low curse, Edmund climbed out of the window.

"Now that's something you don't see every day" came an amused voice from the nearby smithy, "A King chasing a girl … from what I hear, it's usually the other way around!"

Edmund cast a frustrated but amused look at the grinning dwarves.

"Which way did she go?"

As one the assembled dwarves pointed to a path leading into the wolves.

Aria, although bandaged, was still wounded, not to mention barefoot and it did not take long for Edmund to catch up with her. Diving for her legs, he quickly tackled to her the ground and used his weight to pin her there, even as she continued to struggle.

"Stop it" he ordered, "you're going to hurt yourself if you keep this up!"

Amazingly Aria did cease her struggles. She lay there under him, panting from her exertions and then, ever so slowly she leaned her head forwards. Edmund found that he couldn't look away from Aria's mesmerising eyes as she brought her lips to his in a heated kiss. As her lips explored his Edmund shifted his hands to run his fingers through her hair, something he had been itching to do since he first saw it.

Aria's lips twitched slightly as is she was smiling and then, Edmund found himself on his back as she unceremoniously threw him off her onto the snowy forest floor.

A moment later and she was up and running into the woods again.

A/N: Thanks for reading - please review